The build-up of polyelectrolyte or colloid particle multilayers on latex surfaces

Succesive additions of anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes or charged colloid particles may lead to the formation of functional multilayer assemblies. The build-up of such multilayers is characterised by a step-wise increase of adsorbed amount and layer thickness, and by alternating highly positive and highly negative values of the ζ-potential of the substrate particles. The stability of the multilayer is shown to depend strongly on the ionic species and the concentration of added salt, on the electrostatic interactions between the polymers, and these between polymer and adsorbent surface. The formation of multilayers including solid particles was found to be rather sensitive to the particle size and dispersity of the component particles.